Wednesday Jan 23

[st_hotflashes]

Liz felt like she was behind which was silly considering she wasn't in actual school and there were no state-wide exams or anything else which would require her to keep up with her studies at regular pace. Still, it bothered Liz that for almost two weeks now her classes and everything had been at a virtual stand still.

She was thankful for getting some notes from Peter and that he promised to help her study. She sat up on the bed, back against the headboard and knees up with her book open. "Do you like having Ned in Kitty's classes now?" She wondered if it was a nice reminder of home or a painful one.

Comments

[st_hotflashes]

"I don't know." Her instinctive reaction was to fold her arms over her chest and stuff her hands under her armpits, hiding them. Maybe they had just seen things?

"Lately I'm been... Some bottles burst at the infirmary and I thought it was weird, but..." Liz looked scared more than any other emotion, though it was mixed with genuine confusion.

[st_arkintern]

Peter Parker is suddenly a bundle of nerves. He was even more anxious than when he discovered he had powers himself. Peter takes her hands into his, and presses his fingers thumbs against the center of her palms.

"We should -- we should probably tell someone."

[st_hotflashes]

Liz's mind was reeling, but she managed to nod. She had thought about what might be happening a little, but mostly she thought it was all in her head.

"Who... do you think we should tell?"

[st_arkintern]

"I don't know. Loki?" Loki was sort of the person at the infirmary the most. "Dad?"

[st_hotflashes]

"I don't want to worry Mr. Stark." She glanced down at Peter's hands in hers thoughtfully. They should probably tell him at some point, but she wasn't sure he could help. Or maybe he could - he had access to lab-like equipment.

[st_arkintern]

"Loki?" Peter asks, still holding her hands.

[st_hotflashes]

She gave a slow nod. "Okay." She paused, worried about moving. "I don't... want to hurt you." She had been keeping her hands extremely still since he began to hold them.

[st_arkintern]

Peter smiles. "Don't worry, I heal up quick."

[st_hotflashes]

That still didn't exactly make her feel comforted, but she didn't think she could convince Pete otherwise either. She climbed off of the bed, glancing at the notebook briefly and wondered what Kitty would think. She bent and scooped it up - maybe Loki could use it for... something.

"Do you think... he'd be okay to see us now?" At least she was pretty sure Loki kind of liked her.

[st_arkintern]

"Yeah, if he's working, I don't see why not." Peter's still not sure what to think of Loki, but Liz seems to like him enough. And Thor definitely likes him, too.

[st_hotflashes]

She nodded yet again and this time she gingerly squeezed his hand, though she was definitely being careful when she did it.

With a deep breath, she headed for the door and then to the infirmary. Her mind tried to figure things out as they walked. One thing she did noticed was she felt a lot less tired and rundown.

When they reached the infirmary, a part of Liz hoped Loki wasn't there so she could ignore this problem, but she knew she needed answers. She looked around, glancing to Loki's desk to see if the god of mischief was around.

[st_ratagem]

Loki was indeed in the clinic and at his desk. As usual when no one was bleeding or ill in the vicinity, he was reading one of the medical texts that now effectively lived in the clinic instead of the library.

[st_arkintern]

"Hey, Loki... Do you have a few minutes?"

The unease is as present in his voice as it is on his face; he glances over at Liz, not sure what to say or do next.

[st_hotflashes]

Liz doesn't necessarily say anything other than to put up her free hand that is holding the burnt book. "I set this on fire with my hands."

[st_ratagem]

Peter was nervous, and ordinarily Loki might have poked at that a little, but Liz’s burned book was more interesting and more important. “Well done? I didn’t realize that was one of your talents.” He was nearly sure it hadn’t been, in fact.

[st_arkintern]

"It's not," Peter says. "At least... it wasn't." Peter's not sure if this is a talent or something that's actually legitimately, concerningly wrong.

"Can you take a look and make sure that everything's okay?"

[st_hotflashes]

Liz gently let go of Peter's hand and walked over to where Loki was. She put the notebook on the table. "After it happened my hands started to have this weird, um... Light or something on it. It felt kind of like when your hand falls asleep, but a little more painful."

She held out her hands. Right now they looked perfectly normal.

[st_ratagem]

Loki spared a glance for the girl's hands - yes, normal - then inspected the notebook more closely. It was definitely burned, and the patterns were wrong for any ordinary means of firestarting, as far as he could tell. "What were you doing when it happened? As precisely as possible, if you please."

[st_arkintern]

Peter looks to Liz to answer the question.

[st_hotflashes]

"Okay..." She thought about it. "Well, we were studying in my room. Calculus." In case that mattered. "We started talking about me going back to Peter's world and how if I came I would be changing the population and maybe it would change who um... " She still couldn't quite say 'died'.

"And then Peter said he didn't want me to get hurt and..." While she thought about it, picturing how Peter kissed her on her forehead. Suddenly her hands began to flicker a green-yellow electricity.

[st_ratagem]

Ah, there. What were the odds whatever was was responding to emotion? Fairly good, Loki thought.

Just out of curiosity, to see what if anything would happen, he fished a wooden tongue depresser out of a book where it had been serving as a makeshift bookmark and handed it to Liz.

[st_arkintern]

Peter shoots Loki a questioning look, then turns to Liz.

[st_hotflashes]

Liz wasn't sure why he was handing her a spoon at first, but then she realized why. She reached out to grasp the spoon. She stood there and looked at it, but it did nothing. She felt a surge of frustration.

Frowning, she closed her eyes for a moment, shaking her head. Somehow it felt like she was failing. "I'm sorry." She looked to Peter and her frown deepened a little. Then the spoon exploded in her hand. Liz immediately let go of whatever was remaining in surprise and jumped back.

[st_ratagem]

Loki waved slightly, as if brushing something aside, and a little telekinesis bounced the flying shards away. The gesture wasn't necessary, but he felt obscurely that it was less threatening when he advertised what he was doing. "Well, I can safely say you're almost certainly not ill. I'd consider possession a possibility if I didn't think it was essentially impossible to arrange here."

[st_arkintern]

Possession was not a possibility that Peter considered until that moment. He'd already been unnerved before Loki started listing possibilities aloud, but now, he felt even moreso.

He had no idea what was going on and he wanted to. This was Liz. If any of this had been happening to him, he'd be considerably calmer about the whole thing. But it wasn't happening to him. It was happening to her and he couldn't stand it.

"What do you think it is?"